The 2014 Tax Small Business Owners Need to Know

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Tax season is a stressful time for everyone, but for business owners, the pressure can be especially high. From January to April, it's a whirlwind of sorting receipts and pay stubs, reviewing ledgers and completing IRS forms to ensure that everything is properly prepared and filed. Even though most businesses use an accountant, digging up all the necessary documentation and information needed for tax filing can still be a hassle.

Being unaware of important tax filing changes can add to the stress of this season. Mark Faggiano, CEO of tax automation software company TaxJar, noted several changes from last year that will affect small business owners:

• The tax rate for the top federal wage went from 35% to 39.6%.
• Business owners can claim a home office deduction if they use a certain space regularly and exclusively for business. The standard deduction is $5 for every square foot, up to 300 square feet. People filing for this deduction, will now only have to fill out one line, rather than a 43-line form.
• For small business owners in the highest tax bracket, the tax rate for long-term capital gains dropped from 20% to 15%.
• A new Medicare tax on investment income adds an increase of 3.8%.
• Online sales tax is now in effect is some states, so business owners need to be wary of particular states that they sell to.

Staying organized throughout the year and using tax preparation software can be really helpful come tax season, said Faggiano. Ensuring that all your payroll files are up to date is also important.

"Don't forget to go over your employee base and update your records," he told Business News Daily.

While you shouldn't wait until the last minute to file your taxes, applying for an extension is the best solution if you feel like you're running out of time.

"It's easy to get a tax extension for income taxes, both personal and small business," Faggiano said. "You may be better off extending instead of possibly making errors or missing deductions."

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Google Forced to Post Privacy Warning on Its French Site

French netizens visiting Google France began seeing an unusual message on the search giant's usually bare homepage on Saturday. The message informs users that Google has been fined 150,000 euros (around $200,000) for violating French privacy laws.

France’s Commissions Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) imposed the fine, and the obligation to post the notice, in January. The decision (French) ended a probe into Google's privacy policy change, implemented by the company in 2012, when all its services' privacy policies were unified into one. After the change, Google combined user data across its different services like YouTube or Gmail.

The CNIL found that the policy didn't give users enough control over their private information, and didn't do a good enough job of explaining exactly what Google can do with that data.

Google is appealing the fine, and asked a French court on Thursday to suspend the order to post the notice in the meantime, arguing that it would cause "irreparable damage" to its reputation. But the court rejected the last-minute attempt to avoid the public shaming and ordered Google to follow through with the order, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

As a result, the visitors of Google.fr are seeing the following message.

A screenshot of the Google homepage in France, taken on Feb. 8, 2014.

[Translated] Statement: The sanctions committee of the Commision Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés has ordered Google to pay a €150,000 fine for violations of the ‘Data-Processing and Freedoms’ law. Decision available at the following address: http:www.cnil.fr/linstitution/missions/sanctionner/Google/.

To avoid any attempt by Google to skirt the spirit of the order by complying with a small "fine print" message, the CNIL even came up with the text of the notice, as well as the size of the font, the position on the homepage and the colors of the message.

This is the first time a European country has ordered Google to post such a notice, but the company has been under the microscope of European countries for years. In April of last year, six countries, including France, opened separate investigations into the company's privacy policies.

On the bright side, Google recently took an important step toward avoiding a $5 billion fine in a three-year-long antitrust investigation by tentatively settling with the European Commission.

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Apple: 130,000 iOS Apps Are From Chinese Developers

There are 130,000 apps from Chinese developers in Apple's App Store, according to numbers released Monday during the company's Q1 earnings call.

To put that in context, the App Store had more than one million apps in total as of last October.

The number of apps coming out of China will likely continue to rise, as Apple broadens its reach in the country.

Expansion in Asia was a big topic during Monday's call. Overall growth in China is up 20%, and revenue grew 31% during Q1.

Earlier this month, Apple partnered with China Mobile, the country's largest wireless carrier, tobegin selling the iPhone 5S and 5C.

"We've been selling with China Mobile for a week," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the call. "Last week was the best week we've ever had for activations in China."

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What Google Is Really Doing With All Those Robot Companies

Since December of last year, Google has purchased at least six companies either buildings robots or creating technologies used in the development of robotics.

Former Google Android lead and current Google Robot Guru Andy Rubin's list of acquired companies reads a bit like a baseline robot kit:

Redwood Robotics for robot arms

Holomni for robot wheels

Bot & Dolly for robotics cameras

Boston Dynamics for creepy and cool mobile robots

DeepMind Technologies for artificial intelligence

Meka Robotics for humanoid robots

Industrial Perception for computer vision (which may or may not be for robotics)

While we know Google has interest in self-driving cars, the robot end-game is unclear. Sure, you can build an army of C-3POs, but for what?

Well, robots are excellent at repetitive tasks, like changing the settings on millions of computers so that they have Google.com as their home page and Google as their default search engine. Would these Google Robots invade homes to make the change or would Google offer it as a service? Send us your computer and our robots will "fix" them.

No one knows. Until then, I offer you the comic guesswork above.

AT&T Drops Price of Shared Plans to $130 a Month for 10GB

AT&T may have just started a new price war among wireless carriers by cutting the cost of its shared plans. The plans now start at $130 for two people to share 10GB of data along with unlimited talk and text, with extra lines costing another $15 each.

By comparison, the same two-person plan on Verizon Wireless costs $180, or $50 more. The difference grows as you add more lines, since Verizon charges $40 for each additional smartphone, so a four-line plan with 10GB of shared data costs $260 a month; on AT&T, it would cost $160.

Sprint offers a similar package with its "Framily" plans, although the comparison isn't perfect, since Sprint limits each line to 1GB of data. A four-line shared plan on Sprint, however, would include unlimited talk and text and costs $160 a month.

T-Mobile isn't a perfect comparison, either; the carrier also places data limits on individual lines in a shared plan. The cost of four lines, each with 2.5GB of data (for a total of 10GB), would cost $140 per month. However, users can upgrade to "unlimited" data for individual lines; the cost for unlimited on all four would be $180 a month (although large data use can lead to slower speeds due to throttling). T-Mobile's plans also include low-cost international roaming.

AT&T says the new rates apply to both new and existing customers. In addition, the carrier is giving a $100 credit to customers who add a new line, whether it's a smartphone, tablet, modem, feature phone or home line. That offer lasts through the end of March.

The competition for wireless customers has grown increasingly fierce

The competition for wireless customers has grown increasingly fierce in the past year, particularly since T-Mobile has begun to chip away at the dominance of AT&T and Verizon with new kinds of "contract-free" plans and populist marketing. Verizon is clearly the primary target of AT&T's move — the carrier is even name-checked in the company's press release.

Representatives for Verizon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Report: Apple Working on Wireless, Solar Charging for iWatch

Apple is reportedly working on a battery for its not-yet-announced iWatch that could be charged both wirelessly and from the sun.

According to a New York Times report, the company is looking to build a smarter battery for its long-rumored smartwatch. The report notes that Apple engineers have experimented with — and are still testing — solar charging for the iPod and iPhone, too.

Apple is eyeing a wireless battery with magnetic induction for the iWatch that wouldn't need to be plugged in, the report stated. Induction charging would allow the device to be charged via a base with electromagnetic fields that would create voltage to fuel the iWatch. This technology is already found in some devices, including Nokia's smartphones. However, the report stated the experiment is still a few years away from launch.

Apple is also reportedly considering a charging concept that would include a solar layer added to the iWatch's curved screen that could give the device power from the sun.

Last week, a report surfaced that Apple's upcoming iOS 8 software will be largely fitness and health-focused and will launch later this year. The news suggests the long-rumored iWatch, which would likely integrate with fitness apps, is nearing a debut, too.

High-Tech Business Cards Digitize Contact Info With a Tap

Despite the high-tech tools we use to conduct business, in-person networking still feels instinctive, albeit old school. You won't find startup founders swapping contact info by bumping smartphones. Instead, they solidify their exchanges with business cards — a lo-fi tradition that hasn't changed much since its origins in European aristocracy.

TouchBase Technologies, an MIT startup that made a splash at last year's DreamIt Venturesaccelerator, has proposed a new option that falls somewhere between a traditional business card and the mostly unpopular digital alternatives already on the market.

TouchBase's cards are embedded with conductive ink circuitry, which mimics the electronic signal of a fingerprint. By tapping the card against a smartphone screen, the cardholder's digital profile is transferred to the recipient's mobile device in seconds.

"We realized that business cards really aren't going away," TouchBase CEO Sai To Yeung tellsMashable. "It's a critical part of business etiquette."

Tech ventures that try to replace the business card do so at their own peril. Google's Android Beam allows smartphones to exchange information through near field communication (NFC), but the technology hasn't been widely adopted as a business card alternative, partly becauseiPhones aren't compatible. Google also recently shuttered Bump, a similar mobile-to-mobile sharing app, and QR codes make a business card look cluttered and ugly.

The information stored on a TouchBase card is not limited to what's physically printed on it. When tapped against a smartphone screen in TouchBase's proprietary app, the card redirects to a digital profile with the cardholder's photo and contact information, with links to Twitter, LinkedInand Facebook profiles, as well as photos and videos of creative projects. This is in contrast to other card-scanning technologies, which rely on a photograph of the card to transcribe information (LinkedIn and Evernote both offer such apps).

"This is a way to keep the look and feel of your card, but when you want to share more information, you have that ability," Yeung says.

The TouchBase profile is cloud-based, so you can update your information at any time.

The TouchBase profile is cloud-based, so you can update your information at any time. Users can also track their cards, seeing who has "tapped" their contact information.

There are a few drawbacks to the card's current technology. TouchBase's trial run is limited to the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C, and the app cannot export information to your Contacts list. Because the card stock is not especially flexible, users might need to remove their iPhone cases in order to lay the card flat against the screen. Yeung says that TouchBase plans to print on more flexible card stock in the future, and that native apps for iPhone and Android are in the pipeline.

TouchBase's Indiegogo campaign will be funding until March 15. As of this writing, the startup has raised nearly half of its $30,000 goal.

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